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Business Innovation: Why It Is So Rare, So Prized And So Feared

It is a curious thing about innovation - there is relatively little of it. Think of the iPod, which is so commonplace these days, but when Tony Fadell was shopping the idea around he was rebuffed by several established media companies before trying a long-shot with Apple in 2000. And thus, the iPod was born on October 23rd, 2001 complete with the renowned secrecy and stealth about their products that Apple is now famous for. For every person with a great idea, there must have been 10x the number of people around them rebuking the idea. As it turns out, that number is actually closer to 15x.
For every innovative personality, there are on average 15 times as many people who’s personality believe innovation counter-intuitive, and will actually fight to maintain the status quo. Innovation has, therefore, two problems – there are relatively few innovators and there is a large majority who’s native instincts are to combat innovation, even if on a subconscious level.

Guardians vs. Rationals

For those of you who have ever taken any psychological profiling or testing for work, you have probably run across the Myers-Briggs test (called MBTI). The MBTI is frequently used in business settings as it is an indicator of how we see the world and are inclined to make decisions. The personalities were given 16 names and put into 4 groups by psychologist David Keirsey. The largest group, The Guardians, are as large as 53% of the population. Guardians are primarily concerned with order, stability, seeking security, and have a strong sense of duty. They are called Protectors, Inspectors, or Supervisors. Well-known Guardians are Queen Victoria, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, and former President George H.W. Bush. The idea of being “disruptive” or “innovative” is so very counter-intuitive to most Guardians. While they vary on how they handle and approach what is “new,” they will not instinctively embrace it. For many, it is contempt without investigation or “what we are doing today is perfectly fine – we have a system in place.” What is inherent in this sentiment is “I have my place in this world, this new idea threatens that place.” They are neither good nor bad, they are just do’ers, they are dependable – they get in there, they find and then they implement a process.

On the other side are the Rationals. They are at best 14% of the population, they put their faith in their ingenuity, and their ability to “think outside the box.” They are called Architects and Masterminds. However, the true inventive group is appropriately called Inventors and is only about 3% of the population. Inventors are the rare breed who don’t care about conventional wisdom, but are pragmatic enough to want to create something in its place. They see the goal as a “go to market” solution, not a theoretically exercise. Famous Inventors (no surprises!) Walt Disney, Thomas Edison, Ben Franklin, Nikola Tesla, and Richard Feynman (a personal favorite). It should not come as a shock then to see how truly inventive people have their work cut out for them against a much larger group who aren’t necessarily keen on their new idea.

A Culture of Innovation

While I think Haydn Shaughnessy’s blog does a much more thorough job of explaining how to embrace innovation in business today, today’s business leaders should factor the following into their innovative thinking:

Understand “Nay Sayers” – Are you surrounded by a constant din of people telling you why these new ideas wont work? Probably, yes. The odds are that unless you are ensconced in a think-tank somewhere, you probably have a team that is put in place because they are good do’ers, good execution people. They – as discussed – aren’t innovators and will generally not look to embrace new ideas. Don’t force it with them – it will only lead to rigidity and them fortifying their positions. Instead, factor their thinking, know where it comes from, and thank them for their input. As a leader, you have to make tough decisions that sometimes the majority will not understand.

Leapfrog – We are the land of the iterative approach. New features are constantly bolted and added to existing products and solutions. “Now in red,” “Now with flavor crystals,” “Now with 30% more . . . “ In fact, if you hear the phrase, “now with . . .” you have just gotten your passport stamped in the land of iteration. Iteration is not natively bad, but it is not innovation. Know when you are just iterating. The iPod was not just another MP3 player, but its design allowed you to scroll through your music, and played into Apple’s great designs to become a media platform. They could have just bolted on improvements to then-leader Compaq’s player. They made a tremendous leap and changed the game.

Starts with leadership – Currently, 3% of your workforce is inventive. But, if you don’t facilitate a culture to embrace their ideas and just hope that innovation will present itself like Glenda the Good Witch, complete with magic wand, you will clearly unfulfilled. Innovation “contests” or challenges are a good place to start. Gather your inventors together and give them some free reign to create. Help new ideas get prototyped and protected before unleashing the Guardians on it. For more here, look at Bruce Upbin’s blog, The Five Habits of Highly Innovative Leaders.

There are no easy answers here. Innovation is rare, but made even more rare by the system we inherently create for innovation. For new ideas to see the light of day, even a little insight on why so many are eager to dismiss “the new” will help overcome some early obstacles and allow something really exciting to come out of your company. Not that “new flavor crystals” aren’t exciting . . .

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Innovation is neither rare or difficult, it is a systematic practice. This principle was taught by Dr. Peter Drucker. Companies should implement the process of innovation into their organizations. I suggest you read Drucker’s book “Innovation and Entrepreneurship” and learn about the 7 windows of innovative opportunity. You may be pleasantly surprised.

As one who has worked in innovative tech for 35 years, I agree, mostly with this description. What is left out is the organizational dynamics, which is more important than the personalities, and almost always opposes change, even suppresses it. Also, guardians dislike rationals and hate inventors. Worse, rationals that want to be inventors often really hate inventors. And there are two other types when it comes to who advances – there are people who are good at doing things and there are people who are good at getting promoted.

Read Dilbert if you want to know what tech and tech innovation is really like.

Apparently it’s natural and universal that the inventor will be resisted. I always had somebody gunning for me while I was inventing things in California for various companies. When ‘they’ (the maintainers) figure out that you can actually do this stuff they suddenly get energized and unbalanced and alarmed because they may not have met anyone who can do this before and they don’t know what to make of it. Their eventual reactions are innumerable but mostly they will manifest in some way which you, the inventor will have to guard against. I spent more than half my time calculating how to overcome political obstacles to the machines I was cooking up. Mostly they just plain don’t want things to change even if the change will increase the company’s profit and their own economic security. The whole reaction is an entirely predictable and documentable phenomenon.